Modular Building Sets - Rumours and Discussion

[ReplicaOfLife]

On 2.12.2017 at 12:20 PM, Sammael said:

Yeah, because it was so easy to project whatever we wanted to the smiling faces of Lion Knights and Black Falcons while they were disemboweling themselves. Or the smiling face of a Dragon Knight who ran into a ghost. Or the smiling face of a Futuron monorail operator being held at gunpoint by Blacktron raiders.

You just proved my point. All the encounters you describe are snapshots. Now imagine the scared or grievously hurt faces in any other situation.

Yes, the smiling face is inappropriate in those situations. But what's the bigger leap, projecting neutral/happy emotions 90% of the time onto a minifigure that looks like its being disemboweled, or projecting feelings of grievous bodily harm on a smiling figure 10% of the time?

Unless you're seriously telling me that kids keep an arsenal of spare minifig faces around to exchange them countless times during play, I stand by my original point.

 

Edited December 3, 2017 by RogerSmith

[Sammael]

14 minutes ago, RogerSmith said:

Unless you're seriously telling me that kids keep an arsenal of spare minifig faces around to exchange them countless times during play, I stand by my original point.

Every single kid I know GREATLY enjoys switching minifig parts, faces included.

You are describing one possible play pattern which is supposedly more valid than the other, I posit that the "snapshots" play pattern is far more prevalent than you are willing to admit, especially with the older audience (which modulars are explicitly aimed at, they are 16+). Also, why don't you answer my premise that smiley faces are incredibly inappropriate as the "neutral" expression? Could it be that they are not, in fact, neutral?

[jdubbs]

3 hours ago, RogerSmith said:

You just proved my point. All the encounters you describe are snapshots. Now imagine the scared or grievously hurt faces in any other situation.

Yes, the smiling face is inappropriate in those situations. But what's the bigger leap, projecting neutral/happy emotions 90% of the time onto a minifigure that looks like its being disemboweled, or projecting feelings of grievous bodily harm on a smiling figure 10% of the time?

Unless you're seriously telling me that kids keep an arsenal of spare minifig faces around to exchange them countless times during play, I stand by my original point.

With rare exception, minifigs that have a distressed or angry expression also have a happy or neutral expression on the opposite side of the head... the angry/distressed expression is provided as an alternate face, and almost never the sole face. The only exceptions I can think of would be certain licensed characters like Kylo Ren, Angry Clone, etc. and maybe the occasional "bad guy" CMF. Even Garmadon, Voldemort, Lord Business, and the Emperor typically have smiles on one of their two faces (granted, they are evil, maniacal smiles, but smiles all the same...)

Bringing it back the Downtown Diner... just three of the included minifigs appear to come with distressed or unconventional faces (sweating weightlifter, singing recording artist, grumpy recording engineer/photographer) all of which have happy faces as well. 

[8BrickMario]

If you can project emotions onto an explicitly smiling figure, then why is it so creatively restrictive to have someone frozen in a different expression? You can pretend any minifigure is emoting differently, regardless of what their printing shows, by that argument. Most minifigures, like in the Diner, are not permanently unhappy and their more emotive faces are the alternative, the reaction for certain play scenarios. The classic face is also incredibly limiting, too, because, unless paired with a moustache or beard piece, guess what? You have a clean-shaven minifigure. Then they would start the evolution of the minifigure face again by adding more variations for more detail and they'd wind up where they did years ago, at the modern style. 

 

Besides, I use my modulars mostly for display, as in, this is static and quite literally a snapshot into this minifigure city, and so anybody with a particular expression is in the moment until I step in and want to change it. When my hands are off, time has stopped, so there is nobody walking around with a grimace for no reason. Something has just happened to them in the scene. While I can understand the appeal to the classic face, I think the modulars stopped being the right home for them, and I'd argue that their resurgence in the Building Bigger Thinking line matches their look much better and evokes the time period more.

[Robert8]

I don't get the fuss about the faces

Just replace them... The classic smiling face is not that hard to get, right?

[LegoModularFan]

When I saw the leaked photo of the DD, I didn’t like at all the non-smiley faces but with the press release, I felt something completely different for these new faces, I could even replace the classic faces with expressional ones!

Edited December 3, 2017 by LegoModularFan

[MAB]

On 02/12/2017 at 11:00 AM, RogerSmith said:

Also, I don't get the argument that the new faces allow different expressions, while the old ones did not. They don't. They allow exactly ONE expression each, just as the old ones. But, contrary to the old ones, what you get is not a neutral face for all that allows you to project whatever you feel like unto it. Instead they are frozen in - sometimes grotesquely overdone - expressions that can't be more than momentary snapshots, that are just ridiculous if you want to have that same minifig just 'walking around' or doing something else. Having someone walk around with an expression of extreme frustration/anger/strain all the time is nonsensical. Having someone walk around with a smile on his face, on the other hand, is not.

So my vote in favor of the plain, smiling faces is also a vote for creativity and usage of imagination, and against prefabrication and scripted storytelling. With the old faces, you could project whatever you wanted upon any minifig. For example: A plainclothes minifig in a police set could be a crook, a passersby, a secretary, a witness or anything else you wanted it to be. With the new ones, all you get (usually) beside the cops are angry/mischievous crooks that are pretty much impossible to cast into any other role.

3

You know you can remove a minifig's head and replace it with a different one, don't you? That gives the figure a different expression.

You could equally well apply the same argument to torsos. Why have a police uniform on a torso? Lego could just supply plain black one and you can use your imagination.  Dentist? Use a plain white one. Baker? Use the same plain white one.

[Bricked1980]

To everybody mourning the loss of smiley faces in Downtown Diner - here you go...

[TheLegoDr]

Thank you for the above picture. That looks great!

I do plan to switch them out, so this is perfect for me. I do wish they would give more new torsos more often though. That dark gray/red hair lady has been around quite a while now.

[jus1973]

Mods,

perhaps rename this thread to 

“The great minifig head in modulars debate”

As an attempt to bring this back to the thread title, now we have a 50’s streamline diner for 2018, what do we think the the next (2019) modular will be and do we think it’ll be a similar style. Me, I think we’ll get a 1960s brutalist concrete building, perhaps as a twin shop setup.

[Carefree_Dude]

I don't understand why the detailed faces vs smiley faces is even a debate? If you don't like the current faces, just change em!

[AFOLguy1970]

1 hour ago, Goldenmasamune said:

I don't understand why the detailed faces vs smiley faces is even a debate? If you don't like the current faces, just change em!

Kind of surprising to me as well, since minifigures are not really the focus of these sets at all.  They can enhance things and populate large setups, but they are not the main reason why the vast majority of us buy modulars.  In fact, not only are the heads rehashes, but the torsos, legs, and hats/hair are typically not all that unique either.  They are pretty much recycled from other sets.  Even with the new one coming out, most of the minifig's features already exist in some form.  

[cimddwc]

A brutalist concrete building briefly crossed my mind, too, but I think that would be too gray and generally not as appealing to a wider audience. Maybe less brutalist, more fine lines, but still rather rectangular features?

 

[koalayummies]

2 hours ago, jus1973 said:

Mods,

perhaps rename this thread to 

“The great minifig head in modulars debate”

As an attempt to bring this back to the thread title

Multiple times you've commented on how this thread is in your opinion going off topic but the title of the thread is 'modular building sets rumors and discussion'. Members can discuss all aspects of the official modular building sets and the series as a whole, not just limited to the hearsay 'I know a guy who knows a guy' rumors. You can talk rumors and the rest can discuss whatever they like regarding the official sets including the just-announced Diner and their thoughts and opinions. The thread is 245 pages long, there's one and a half pages discussing minifigure heads, its a part of the modular discussion because they've been doing it one way for 10 years and now it changed. That is what makes it pertinent to the broader discussion of the entire modular building series.

Is it a huge change, no, but others are free to discuss it if they like. 

2 hours ago, jus1973 said:

what do we think the the next (2019) modular will be and do we think it’ll be a similar style. Me, I think we’ll get a 1960s brutalist concrete building, perhaps as a twin shop setup.

That's not a rumor, thats just a guess but I'll join because the next modular could be a police station-library-school-museum-hospital-post office-apartment building-hardware store-train station-clothing outlet-deli-pancake house-locksmith-computer repair-home furnishings store-sporting goods shop-appliance repair-jeweler-seafood-pharmacy-bicycle shop-architecture firm-lawyers office-courthouse built in gothic, neoclassical, postmodern, historicism, timber framing, tudor, Mediterranean revival, baroque and so on and so forth.

[ChrisPChicken]

I didn't mean to imply that I preferred classic smiles to modern expressions, I also use them both and appreciate the options. I'm just not a fan of the extreme expressions. I find myself lamenting the high percentage of smirks and steely determination when trying to stage a normal morning. But of course my complaint is utterly pointless...I can always change them!

I do hear everyone's point about the usefulness of having a range of emotions, especially for narratives. I think for storytelling extreme emotions make a ton of sense. In addition, I absolutely think the time is ripe for a new chapter in Modular faces. The classic faces were never more than a cute nod to the 80's.

As an aside, I did have Black Falcons disemboweling Lion Knights when I was a kid, (they always won in my world!) and the smiling faces, while swords separated legs from torso, were hilarious due to their ridiculousness. On the other hand that kept the mood light; I'm not sure expressions of pain commensurate with disembowelment would have made my play more meaningful. But that's another can of worms...

[ElectroDiva]

47 minutes ago, cimddwc said:

A brutalist concrete building briefly crossed my mind, too, but I think that would be too gray and generally not as appealing to a wider audience. Maybe less brutalist, more fine lines, but still rather rectangular features?

 

Ah come on - who wouldn't love something like this for the next modular?

 

 

I for one would welcome the chance to accelerate my plans to build a dystopian slum district for my city.

 

I wouldn't even mind what kind of minifig faces it came with. Sedated classic smiley and a selection of expressive angry grimaces would work equally well..

[Dakar A]

8 hours ago, jus1973 said:

Mods,

perhaps rename this thread to 

“The great minifig head in modulars debate”

As an attempt to bring this back to the thread title, now we have a 50’s streamline diner for 2018, what do we think the the next (2019) modular will be and do we think it’ll be a similar style. Me, I think we’ll get a 1960s brutalist concrete building, perhaps as a twin shop setup.

I feel like we could get some good skyscraper-esque design, perhaps a bit of an homage to the Home Insurance Building (I know that's late 1800s, but it would still be a bit of a departure from the style) or International style buildings (A Bauhaus design school homage would be awesome).

[jus1973]

11 hours ago, koalayummies said:

Multiple times you've commented on how this thread is in your opinion going off topic but the title of the thread is 'modular building sets rumors and discussion'. Members can discuss all aspects of the official modular building sets and the series as a whole, not just limited to the hearsay 'I know a guy who knows a guy' rumors. You can talk rumors and the rest can discuss whatever they like regarding the official sets including the just-announced Diner and their thoughts and opinions. The thread is 245 pages long, there's one and a half pages discussing minifigure heads, its a part of the modular discussion because they've been doing it one way for 10 years and now it changed. That is what makes it pertinent to the broader discussion of the entire modular building series.

Is it a huge change, no, but others are free to discuss it if they like. 

That's not a rumor, thats just a guess but I'll join because the next modular could be a police station-library-school-museum-hospital-post office-apartment building-hardware store-train station-clothing outlet-deli-pancake house-locksmith-computer repair-home furnishings store-sporting goods shop-appliance repair-jeweler-seafood-pharmacy-bicycle shop-architecture firm-lawyers office-courthouse built in gothic, neoclassical, postmodern, historicism, timber framing, tudor, Mediterranean revival, baroque and so on and so forth.

Thanks for confirming that some members of this forum has almost no sense of humour.  I thought eurobricks was supposed to be a friendly place for us to whittle away a few minutes a day on our collective hobby.  It’s a shame that we have to get a bit snarky about things sometimes.  

I don’t want to start some kind of flaming exercise so I leave it here. 

[Digger of Bricks]

20 hours ago, jus1973 said:

As an attempt to bring this back to the thread title, now we have a 50’s streamline diner for 2018, what do we think the the next (2019) modular will be and do we think it’ll be a similar style. Me, I think we’ll get a 1960s brutalist concrete building, perhaps as a twin shop setup.

I'd hope it would be something of a more elegant Art Deco aesthetic; put simply, less like Fallout, more like Bioshock's Rapture. 

 

[Aanchir]

1 minute ago, Digger of Bricks said:

I'd hope it would be something of a more elegant Art Deco aesthetic; put simply, less like Fallout, more like Bioshock's Rapture. 

That could be interesting, but do you have any pics of how that might translate to a smaller building? A skyscraper like those ones probably wouldn't work as a modular building unless it were at a "deluxe" price point like Town Hall/Assembly Square/Ninjago City. Also might be a more repetitive build since there's not as much variation between the floors.

I'm really not sure what kind of modular building could be good for the future. But one thing I would love, now that LEGO has a wheelchair piece, is a building that's wheelchair accessible. So far the only modular building that has had an elevator was Town Hall, and there was no way to get to that elevator without climbing some stairs.

[Brick Dangerous]

This thread has become a travesty.

Batman out.

[Digger of Bricks]

41 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

That could be interesting, but do you have any pics of how that might translate to a smaller building? A skyscraper like those ones probably wouldn't work as a modular building unless it were at a "deluxe" price point like Town Hall/Assembly Square/Ninjago City. Also might be a more repetitive build since there's not as much variation between the floors.

Here's something I had pinned in one of my Pinterest boards that would fit the modular scale much more nicely. There are probably better examples out there, but this was one of the only pins I had in this board that is of a much smaller scale, as everything else I have pinned are either skyscrapers or cityscapes.

[koalayummies]

9 hours ago, jus1973 said:

Thanks for confirming that some members of this forum has almost no sense of humour.  I thought eurobricks was supposed to be a friendly place for us to whittle away a few minutes a day on our collective hobby.  It’s a shame that we have to get a bit snarky about things sometimes.  

I don’t want to start some kind of flaming exercise so I leave it here. 

The contents of your statements are impressively contradicting. 

Edited December 5, 2017 by koalayummies

[Ogist]

After a week of the publication of pictures I am still very disappointed and I think this is the worst modular so far. 

[Carefree_Dude]

58 minutes ago, Ogist said:

After a week of the publication of pictures I am still very disappointed and I think this is the worst modular so far. 

Oh come now, I know it's not your favorite, but at least it's not Market Street!